


Fireflies

by dreamoverdrive



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 03:30:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3554411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamoverdrive/pseuds/dreamoverdrive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The gaang meets up again during the summer midway through college. They fall into new and old routines and find that while much is the same, many things have changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fireflies

It had been a few years since they had all gotten together. There had been individual meet ups—she’d gone to visit Toph at her welding academy, she’d gone to see Suki at her specialized martial arts training, she’d gone nearly every month to see Sokka at his engineering program up north (usually to see if he was still eating ridiculous amounts of ramen and putting dirty dishes in his bathtub) and now that Aang was in school, she’d made sure that she visited him every few months. Even when he gave her the sad look and his eyes became a little grayer when she inadvertently reminded him of what they used to be, she never regretted visiting him. At this point she refused to feel guilty, but maybe she did feel a hint of sadness beneath it all. 

There was only one person she hadn’t seen in the last two years. The last time had been at her graduation party and she still couldn’t think about it without becoming an inexplicable mix of sad and relieved.

She moved through the press of bodies of old friends—friends that had gone to the same high school and hung out in groups relatively close to her own. She flashed a few smiles to people who would have looked familiar if their faces hadn’t become so angular and their hair so long. It really was quite disorienting to see people she'd known from band or ASB without puppy fat on their cheeks and with new piercings in their noses.

Part of the reason she had gone to school so far away was to escape this kind of intimate closeness in a group of people who all knew each other. She wasn't quite sure she liked the calculating way people were looking at each other, sizing up new improvements and new faults. She liked her bigger college and the impersonal feel of it. She liked choosing her groups and their sizes rather than belonging to one big and jumbled pool with no say in the matter because of a forced sense of familiarity. 

Sokka had graduated the year before her with Zuko and Suki. Katara, Toph, and Aang were left behind, and they were all finally forced to realize that their little group would be split up within the next couple years and that it would be up to them to maintain the connection. When she had broken up with Aang those last few weeks of her own senior year, it was like a hole had opened up in her chest, and it demanded more than what she’d been giving herself. It turned out that the hole could only be fed by the rumble of the plane when it took off the runway and all the new coats she had to buy when she moved out east. She hadn’t realized she’d needed to leave until she had done it. It had taken the final realization that _they really do not need me anymore_ to give her the strength to finally do something for herself and find who she was without her friends to guide her along.

“Katara!”

She swung around to face her brother at the sound of his voice and found he was double fisting two red cups, a shit-faced grin plastered on his face. He stumbled over to her and she gave him a look that said ‘I am so not helping you with that hangover tomorrow morning.’ He scowled.

“Katara, he’s not coming until an hour from now. Stop pacing and talk to some people.”

His words were slightly slurred but he’d hit the nail on the head. She glared. “I have been talking to people, Sokka.” She glanced at the cups in his hands and then snatched them away. “This better be as wasted as you get because I refuse to spend the first day with all of us back together listening to you complain about your splitting headache.”

 “C’mon ‘tara,” he said, breaking out the nickname he used when he wanted to make her feel little again or when he was becoming less and less capable of saying her entire name. “Lighten up. You’re supposed to be having fun.”

“I am having fun,” she snapped. He raised an eyebrow and her face softened. “Alright, Sokka,” she sighed.

He clapped her on the arm and flashed one last lopsided grin before wading back into the crowd. Katara looked down with distaste at the two cups she’d been left with, took a hesitant sip of one, and immediately threw them away at the nearest trash can. Her brother was gross.

But he was also right so she found Ty Lee surrounded by a crowd of guys that were very disheartened when her attention shifted instantly to Katara. They talked about the gymnastics program at Ty Lee's college and where she’d be going to compete after she graduated with her bachelor’s in psychology.

“How about you, Katara,” Ty lee asked, wide eyes sparkling with pink eye shadow. “You joined your school’s swim team, didn’t you?” She sent a secretive look around and then leaned in close enough that Katara could smell the sweetness of whatever sugary drink she’d chosen on her breath. “You find any cute guys out east? I promise I won’t tell if you did and it’s a secret.”

Katara laughed and shook her head. “Of course not, Ty lee. I’d have told you right away.”

Ty Lee pouted. “I guess that’s good then. I mean for him at least.”

“For who?”

“Ty Lee!” Katara and Ty Lee turned to face sharp amber eyes regarding them with a calculating look.

“Azula!” Ty Lee spun around and launched herself into a hug, nearly knocking Azula’s careful updo out of its clip. “When did you get here?”

“Just a moment ago.” Her eyes searched Katara’s face over Ty Lee’s shoulder. “I came alone, by the way.”

Katara raised her eyebrows and Azula glared. “Oh, you know I didn’t mean it like that. I meant Zuzu took a different flight than me.”

“Right,” Katara said, patting Azula’s arm that hung over Ty Lee’s back, who had still refused to release her from the hug. “I’ll see you later then.”

Katara turned away and left the two girls to their catching up. It was too hard for her to look at Azula’s face and not remember the fight they’d had several years ago in Zuko’s living room. Azula had shoved him into a cabinet in a fit of fury and nearly knocked him out. Katara and she had it out then, screaming till they were red in the face and even exchanging a few open-handed slaps while Zuko watched from the floor, dazed and bewildered. It had been a complete and utter mess and even now, after Azula had gone through extensive therapy and lost many of her abusive habits, Katara had a hard time reconnecting.

She moved through the dim room that had grown darker now that the sun had set, searching for another familiar face. It didn’t take her long to spot Suki standing off to the side and cradling a mini bottle of water in the palm of her hand.

“No drinking tonight?”

Suki gave her a relieved grin when Katara leaned on the wall beside her. “No, my schedule for the week is too much for me to start it off with a hang over. Your brother told you I was a light-weight?”

Katara glanced at Suki’s arm and shoulder muscles left exposed by the summer dress and couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Not like Katara would be capable of making a training regimen week by week for herself when she was away from her trainers. “Yeah, I remember from your senior year. It seemed like Sokka was always dumping you on my bed in the middle of the night on Saturdays saying you were too drunk to sneak back in your house.”

Suki flushed and Katara back-tracked. “Not always! I meant every once in awhile! It’s not like I ever minded, though. I missed it a lot when you left.”

“I missed you, too, Katara,” Suki said, resting a hand on Katara's wrist. “Um, did your brother ever tell you anything about…”

She faded off and Katara finally supplied the word. “Your break-up?”

Suki cringed. “Yeah. That.”

Katara shook her head. “He was away at school and I was here. By the time he told me about it, he was back to macho-no-emotions Sokka. What happened? Was it bad?”

Suki was just opening her mouth to explain when an explosion of sound erupted by the door. They turned and Katara grinned when she saw who it was.

He was mobbed by people she recognized as old soccer players and track runners. They whooped at the sight of him and he awkwardly tried to navigate out of the group, his face red. Sokka came tearing out of nowhere and threw himself in the middle of it all with a loud cry of, “ ** _ZUKO!_** ”

Katara felt her grin fade as he was finally brought out of the cluster, but not without a ring of a few people left in orbit. It looked like it would be awhile before she’d be able to speak with him. She wondered if he’d changed after two years…

“Why don’t you go over there?” Katara jumped and looked back at Suki who was flicking her eyes between the group of people and Katara in a knowing way. “He’d recognize you in a heartbeat.”

Katara just smiled. “No, I’ll see him in a bit. He’s staying with us, anyways.”

Suki raised her eyebrows and gave her one last interested look before turning her attention towards a cluster of giggling girls that were growing louder and louder. “I think I have to go round up some of the old Judo girls. Looks like their new captain never taught the younger ones restraint.”

Katara laughed. She’d seen a few younger girls in the old high school varsity judo jackets frequenting the drinks isle in the kitchen one time too many. All it would take was the old legend, Suki the state champ, walking up to them with a disapproving look in her eyes to get them to behave.

After Suki left, Katara went in search of the cooler. She found it pushed to the side of the front door, pulled out her first beer of the night, and went in search of some fresh air. She let herself out the glass sliding door that opened out onto the deck and slid off her flats, enjoying the feeling of grainy wood beneath her toes. She padded out to the edge of the deck and lowered herself down to let her legs dangle off the side, watching the summertime fireflies glow in the darkness above the grass.

She found herself knocking the back of her heels against the wood in the rhythm of the old high school spirit song. It might have been more fun if Aang and Toph had wanted to come to the party. Maybe then she wouldn’t be out here, feeling overwhelmingly nostalgic. If she closed her eyes and listened to the low sound of people talking back inside, and paid attention to the way the sequins of her dress pressed against the skin on her legs and the way the cold glass of the beer bottle felt against her lips—she could almost pretend she was still a senior in high school, trying to decide where the hell she wanted to go and what the hell she wanted to do.

The sliding door squeaked open and she stilled, bringing her swinging legs to a stop. It clicked shut and the deck wood creaked as the person walked closer to her. They lowered themselves down beside her and she listened to the sound of another set of heels knocking back against the wood. 

“Hey.”

Her eyes flashed open at the sound of the voice and she spun to face the gleaming eyes watching her with a mix of amusement and surprise she guessed was from seeing her for the first time in so, so long.

“Zuko!” She launched herself over the small space and locked her arms around the back of his neck. He smelled like cologne, musty airplane air, and coffee. The dork must have spent his day camped out in some airport Starbucks trying to do homework. She squeezed him tightly and he laughed.

“Katara, you’re suffocating me.”

"Good,” she grumbled, giving him one last squeeze before reluctantly letting go.

He was smiling the same smile she remembered, the lopsided one with a side of his lips curled up as if he was trying to press down his grin. He was only ever half successful.

“Let me get a good look at you!” She pressed the side of her hands against his jaw, gently directing his face into some light that spilled out from the glass door behind them. His cheekbones had grown sharper and his hair was a little shaggier. The light made the stretched and puckered skin of his scar shine and she had to resist the urge to trace it. They hadn’t seen each other in so long and she was already—

She let her hands fall from the sides of his face. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. You’ve been out here two minutes and I’m already poking at—“

“Your hair is longer.” He flushed after he realized he had interrupted her. “I mean you’d just cut some of it off before going to school and now it’s even longer than before you cut it.”

She twirled a lock around her fingers. “Yeah,” she finally said, trying to figure out why him remembering how long her hair had been her senior year was so important to her. She couldn’t come up with a good reason.

“I want to hear all about your last year,” she said. “Sokka told me you’re going off to law school next?”

 “Yeah, I just have to decide which one I want to go to.”

She ribbed him in the side with her elbow. “And I’m sure you’ve got a ton of choices, you massive nerd.

He nudged her back. “Bug off, Katara.”

They stared off in silence for a few moments, watching the fireflies flickering. It was the comfortable kind of silence, the kind she remembered having with him. Suddenly an ache opened up in her chest and for the first time that night she felt a real, honest desire to go back to the past, if only for a little while just to have what it had been one more time. She sighed and Zuko glanced at her.

She swung her feet back up to the deck and pushed herself upright. “We better go round everyone up. It’s getting late and we have a lot to catch up on tomorrow.”

He sat still for a moment more and then followed suit, hauling himself to his feet. They let themselves back inside and somehow, Katara found that the party didn’t seem like so much of an ordeal anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be continuing this for multiple chapters. I hope you all enjoyed it!


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